Local homeless population rises

A warm place to shelter from brisk winter weather is a luxury that many people can’t afford.

The population of homeless people in the United States skyrocketed in 2024, reaching its highest levels in history.

“Homelessness has different faces. It doesn’t just mean the person who’s sleeping in a tent or sleeping on a park bench,” said Frank Zywicki, programs manager at Family Promise of Sussex County.

“It’s the person who doesn’t know where they’re going to lay their head at night. It’s the person who is at risk of losing their home or who is living in a motel that is being subsidized by a government agency or is living temporarily in a shelter that is being paid for by a nonprofit.”

According to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the homeless population increased:

• 65% from 2020 to 2024 in Orange County, N.Y.

• 11% from 2020 to 2024 in eastern Pennsylvania.

• 22% from 2020 to 2024 in Passaic County.

• 16% from 2020 to 2024 in Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon counties.

Strain on services

The initial rise in homelessness came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many to lose their jobs. The federal government’s $2 trillion relief package included a 60-day eviction moratorium, which prevented landlords from evicting tenants who made late or incomplete rent payments.

But when the moratorium ended, “there was a large wave of people who were being evicted,” said Zywicki.

Since the pandemic, the tri-state area has seen an increase in individuals and families seeking assistance with housing.

“There is more of a need for housing due to the decrease in affordability,” said Pike County Director of Human Services Robert Ruiz. “Rents have increased significantly, especially since COVID.”

Shelters, meanwhile, are running out of beds - or are too far away for residents to access.

“The number of people seeking services continues to increase,” said Colin Jarvis, executive director at Newburgh Ministry, which runs two shelters for single adults in Orange County. Both usually are near capacity; the shelter refers people to 211 when it’s full.

Jarvis said Newburgh Ministry’s homeless population “spans the gamut” from those who have been displaced to unemployed and underemployed individuals who cannot afford rent.

The need for shelter also is growing in Passaic County, especially in the areas such as West Milford, said Sandra Ramos, founder and executive director of Strengthen Our Sisters.

“There are no homeless shelters in the upper county,” said Ramos, whose shelters predominantly house battered women. “There are people with addiction and mental health problems, and they have nowhere to go. One of the only options is St. Paul’s in Paterson and many do not want to go there.”

Point-in-Time count

Each year on the last Wednesday in January, communities across the country conduct the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Point-in-Time (PIT) Count. The count aims to quantify the number of homeless people, both sheltered and unsheltered, on a single night, according to HUD.

“So the Point-in-Time is literally a snapshot defining or identifying homelessness within the community by using the staff here to volunteer and go and see who is homeless in the community at that time,” Zywicki said.

The count serves as a census for the distribution of federal funding for homeless programs and inventory of the population of homeless people in the country by year.

The count will take place Jan. 29 in shelters and on streets nationwide. Zywicki said his staff and volunteers will go from the street to abandoned buildings, cars, emergency shelters, youth shelters, transitional housing, safe havens, motels, hotels and more.

In 2024, the count found that:

• 404 people were homeless in Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon counties. Of that number, 354 were sheltered in emergency housing, transitional housing, motels, or the homes of friends or family. The remaining 50 were living in cars or outdoors, unprotected from harsh winter conditions.

• 710 people were homeless in Passaic County; 616 were sheltered.

• 779 people were homeless in Orange County; 666 were sheltered.

• 2,262 people were homeless in the PIT Count’s eastern Pennsylvania region, which spans 33 rural counties, including Pike, Wayne and Monroe; 1,770 were sheltered.

“Sometimes there’s volunteers that will go out into the woods and see if there’s somebody out there who is homeless and needing help or wanting services and maybe just doesn’t know how to access them,” said Dawn Metzger, executive director of the Samaritan Inn in Newton. “Otherwise we do go around and anybody who’s calling that says that they’re homeless, we’ll help them and try to get them in at least a motel room for the night.

“Over the past six months, we have learned that there are more single fathers with children in the shelters than there has been in the past,” she added. “A majority had been single moms. But the last six months we have seen a definite spike and change in regards to the clientele.”

Affordable housing crisis

The lack of affordable housing for low-income individuals exacerbates the homeless problem.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the deficit in affordable and available housing is more than 214,000 units in New Jersey, more than 666,000 units in New York and more than 265,000 units in Pennsylvania.

“The main thing that’s really hurting people is just finding affordable housing that they can sustain,” said Metzger.

“If they’re struggling to get a job and then they get a job, and say they work at Burger King, or McDonald’s; whatever the minimum wage is, that’s usually what they’re starting at. And then sometimes that’s not enough to sustain yourself and have an apartment - especially when a one-bedroom is going for $1,800 a month. And that doesn’t include your utilities, your food and if you have a car and things like that.”